Reducing Distortion In An Analog-To-Digital Converter

ABSTRACT

In one embodiment, an apparatus includes: a first voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) unit to receive a first portion of a differential analog signal and convert the first portion of the differential analog signal into a first digital value; a second VCO ADC unit to receive a second portion of the differential analog signal and convert the second portion of the differential analog signal into a second digital value; a combiner to form a combined digital signal from the first and second digital values; a decimation circuit to receive the combined digital signal and filter the combined digital signal into a filtered combined digital signal; and a cancellation circuit to receive the filtered combined digital signal and generate a distortion cancelled digital signal, based at least in part on a coefficient value.

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/747,057, filed Jun. 23, 2015, the content of which is herebyincorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

Analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are used in many differentcomponents to enable incoming analog signals to be converted into adigital format. This is the case, as modern semiconductors typicallyperform a large amount of processing in a digital domain. ADCs can beused in a wide variety of signal processing paths, ranging from lowfrequency applications to relatively high frequency applications.Different ADCs have different characteristics that may be suitable forparticular implementations. While one suitable ADC architecture is adelta-sigma modulator, the size, power consumption and computationexpense of such ADCs can be greater than desired for certain situations.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one aspect, an apparatus includes: a first voltage controlledoscillator (VCO) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) unit to receive afirst portion of a differential analog signal and convert the firstportion of the differential analog signal into a first digital value; asecond VCO ADC unit to receive a second portion of the differentialanalog signal and convert the second portion of the differential analogsignal into a second digital value; a combiner to form a combineddigital signal from the first and second digital values; a decimationcircuit to receive the combined digital signal and filter the combineddigital signal into a filtered combined digital signal; and acancellation circuit to receive the filtered combined digital signal andgenerate a distortion cancelled digital signal, based at least in parton a coefficient value.

In an embodiment, the cancellation circuit is to obtain the coefficientvalue from a non-volatile storage. The non-volatile storage may store aplurality of coefficient values, each associated with at least one of atemperature range and a process type. In addition, a controller may beconfigured to select the coefficient value from the plurality ofcoefficient values based on temperature information of the apparatusreceived from at least one thermal sensor.

In an example, the cancellation circuit includes: a first functiongenerator to generate a cubed value of the filtered combined digitalsignal; a gain circuit to apply the coefficient value to the cubed valueto generate a cancellation signal; and a second combiner to combine thefiltered combined digital signal and the cancellation signal to obtainthe distortion cancelled digital signal.

In an example, the first VCO ADC unit comprises a firstvoltage-controlled ring oscillator and the second VCO ADC unit comprisesa second voltage-controlled ring oscillator, to reduce a second-orderdistortion.

In another example, the cancellation circuit comprises: a first functiongenerator to generate a cubed value of the filtered combined digitalsignal; a calibration circuit to receive a digitized calibration signal,calculate a power value therefrom, and generate the coefficient valuebased on the power value; a multiplier to generate a product of thecubed value and the coefficient value; and a second combiner to combinethe product and the filtered combined digital signal. In this example,the first function generator is coupled in feed forward between thedecimation circuit and the second combiner. A tone generation circuitmay be configured to provide a calibration signal corresponding to thedigitized calibration signal to the first and second VCO ADC units in acalibration mode to enable the calibration circuit to generate thecoefficient value.

In one example, the first VCO ADC unit comprises: a ring oscillator toreceive the first portion of the differential analog signal and output aplurality of phase signals; a plurality of sampler circuits to receivethe plurality of phase signals and output a plurality of sampledsignals; a plurality of phase detectors to detect a phase between a pairof the plurality of sampled signals; a plurality of encoders to receivethe detected phase and generate binary outputs; and a differentiator toreceive the binary outputs and generate the first digital value.

In another aspect, a system includes: a differential signal path toreceive a differential analog signal. This differential signal path mayinclude: an anti-aliasing filter to filter the differential analogsignal; an attenuator coupled to the anti-aliasing filter to attenuatethe filtered differential analog signal; an input buffer to buffer thefiltered differential analog signal; and a differential ADC coupled tothe input buffer, the differential ADC comprising: a first VCO ADC unitto receive and convert a first portion of the filtered differentialanalog signal to a first digital value; a second VCO ADC unit to receiveand convert a second portion of the filtered differential analog signalto a second digital value; a first combiner to form a combined digitalsignal from the first and second digital values; and a correctioncircuit to receive the combined digital signal and generate athird-order distortion cancelled digital signal therefrom, using acoefficient value.

In an example, the first VCO ADC unit comprises a firstvoltage-controlled ring oscillator and the second VCO ADC unit comprisesa second voltage-controlled ring oscillator, to remove second-orderdistortion from the combined digital signal. The first VCO ADC unit maycomprise: a ring oscillator to receive the first portion of the filtereddifferential analog signal and output a plurality of phase signals; aplurality of sampler circuits to receive the plurality of phase signalsand output a plurality of sampled signals; a plurality of phasedetectors to detect a phase between a pair of the plurality of sampledsignals; a plurality of encoders to receive the detected phase andgenerate binary outputs; and a differentiator to receive the binaryoutputs and generate the first digital value.

In an example, the correction circuit comprises a cancellation loopcircuit having: a first function generator to generate a cubed value ofthe combined digital signal; a gain circuit to apply the coefficientvalue to the cubed value to generate a cancellation signal; and a secondcombiner to combine the combined digital signal and the cancellationsignal to obtain the third-order distortion cancelled digital signal.The first function generator is coupled in feed forward between thefirst combiner and the second combiner.

In another example, the correction circuit comprises a calibration loopcircuit having: a mixer to receive the combined digital signal and mixthe combined digital signal with a mixing signal to obtain a mixedsignal; a filter to filter the mixed signal; a second function generatorto generate a squared value of the filtered mixed signal; and a thirdcombiner to generate the coefficient value from the squared value.

In a still further aspect, a non-transitory computer readable mediumincludes instructions to enable a controller to be configured to:determine at least one operating parameter of a device; access an entryof a non-volatile storage of the device to obtain a coefficient valuebased on the at least one operating parameter; and provide thecoefficient value to a cancellation circuit of an analog-to-digitalconverter of the device, to enable the cancellation circuit to reduce,using the coefficient value, third-order distortion in a digital valuegenerated in the analog-to-digital converter from an analog signal.

In an example, the computer readable medium further comprisesinstructions to enable the controller to determine the at least oneoperating parameter and access the entry in a first mode, and in asecond mode, to enable a calibration circuit to generate the coefficientvalue.

In an example, the computer readable medium further comprisesinstructions to enable the controller to disable the calibration circuitafter generation of the coefficient value. The instructions may furtherenable the analog-to-digital converter to generate a product of a cubedvalue of the digital value and the coefficient value and combine theproduct with the digital value to reduce the third-order distortion.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a high level view of an ADC in accordancewith an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example ring oscillator-based ADC inaccordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of further details of an ADC in accordancewith an embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a representative four-stage ringoscillator in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of further details of a sampler and conversioncircuit of an ADC in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a graphical illustration of a set of sampled phase valuesobtained from sampled phase information of an ADC in accordance with anembodiment.

FIG. 7 is a graphical illustration of a third-order distortioncancellation function in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a portion of a receiver in accordance withanother embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating an input circuit inaccordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of a method in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a tuner in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a system in accordance with oneembodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In various embodiments, an ADC can be implemented with avoltage-controlled oscillator design. Such form of an ADC can providesuitable quantization for particular applications at lower powerconsumption, reduced area and lesser processing consumption than otherADC designs, such as a delta-sigma modulator. More specifically, ADCembodiments as described herein can be used in a number of situationswhere incoming signals are substantially free of interference such asadjacent channel interference due to the presence of strong blockers (assuch interference may be removed by a tuner or other front endprocessing circuitry) prior to receipt in the ADC.

However, a VCO-based ADC may be subject to distortion, includingsecond-order and third-order distortion. ADC embodiments describedherein provide mechanisms and techniques to at least substantiallyreduce such second-order and third-order distortions resulting fromnon-linearity.

Embodiments may be used in a variety of different situations. Asexamples, embodiments may be used in digital TV demodulators, such asfor use in DVB-T/T2 and DVB-C/C2 and DVB-S/S2. Such systems may specifya signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 50 dB in a 30 MHz bandwidth (forDVB-S/S2) and/or 60 dB in a 8 MHz bandwidth (for DVB-T/T2 and DVB-C/C2).Given that within a demodulator there are not strong blockers present, ahigh-dynamic range ADC may not be needed. As such, a VCO-based ADC asdescribed herein may be used in such designs instead of a delta-sigmaADC. This is the case, as such delta-sigma designs may undesirablyconsume greater amounts of chip real estate and power consumption than aVCO-based ADC.

While a VCO-based ADC may be suitable from size, power and resolutionpoints of view, there can be an undesirable amount of non-linearitydistortions present. As will be described herein, embodiments mayprovide for appropriate compensation, cancellation and/or correction ofsuch nonlinearity-based distortion.

Referring now to FIG. 1, shown is a block diagram of a high level viewof an ADC in accordance with an embodiment. As seen in FIG. 1, ADC 100includes a primary circuit 110 and a cancellation circuit 150. Ingeneral, primary circuit 110 is configured to perform a conversion ofincoming analog signals to digital form and provide these digitizedsignals (which may have some amount of distortion, including third-orderdistortion) to cancellation circuit 150. In various embodiments,cancellation circuit 150 is configured to perform distortion removal,including cancellation of all or substantially all third-orderdistortion present in the digitized signals to thus provide adistortion-free (or at least substantially distortion-free) digitizedoutput (y).

More specifically with reference to FIG. 1, ADC 100 is a VCO-based ADCthat includes a differential signal path to receive an incomingdifferential input analog signal (ADCin_p and ADCin_n). This incominganalog signal may be received from a variety of different sources indifferent architectures. In an example implementation herein, thisVCO-based ADC may be present in a digital TV demodulator configured toreceive incoming analog signals after receipt from a given source (e.g.,cable, satellite or so forth) and front end processing, which may beperformed in a separate tuner, in some cases.

As seen, primary circuit 110 includes differential VCO ADC core units115 p and 115 n in order to suppress even-order distortion terms.Details of an example core 115 will be described below. Suffice to say,in an embodiment cores 115 may be implemented as ring oscillator-basedADC core units. As seen, the resulting digitized outputs from core units115 may be provided to a combiner circuit 120, which combines thedigitized outputs and provides them to a decimation filter 130 to reducea sampling rate of the digitized signals. In an embodiment, decimationfilter 130 may be configured for a decimate-by-4 operation to provide adigitized output stream at a sample rate of approximately 200Megasamples per second (MS/s). Note that in different embodiments,depending on a required dynamic range, a wide variety of bit widthoutputs can be realized by a given ADC design. In an example, ADC 100may be configured to generate an 11-bit output, although embodiments arenot limited in this regard.

As discussed, there may be some amount of third-order distortion presentin the output of primary circuit 110. Note that the distortion mainlyarises from the non-linearity of the tuning curve of the oscillator.This distortion may vary based on particular device characteristics, andcan also vary based on one or more of process, voltage, and/ortemperature at which an ADC operates. In some cases, a relatively smallnumber of stored coefficient values can be used to provide fordistortion cancellation since the distortion is mainly frequencyindependent. In other cases, a dynamically determined coefficient valuemay be used.

As illustrated, cancellation circuit 150 is configured in a feed forwardarrangement in which the output (x) of primary circuit 110 is providedas an input to cancellation circuit 150 and further to a combiner 180coupled to an output of cancellation circuit 150 (note in some cases,combiner 180 may be part of the cancellation circuit itself). In theembodiment shown, a static cancellation circuit is provided to receivethe distortion-included digitized signal x, which is provided to afunction generator 160. In an embodiment, function generator 160 may beconfigured as a cube operator to generate a cubed value of the digitizedoutput x and provide it to a gain circuit 170. In various embodiments,gain circuit 170 may be configured as a fixed and/or controllableamplifier (and/or multiplier) to receive the cubed value output byfunction generator 160 and apply a coefficient value α to this value togenerate a cancellation signal αx³.

When provided to combiner 180, a distortion-cancelled output y isrealized. Understand while shown at this high level in the embodiment ofFIG. 1, many variations and alternatives are possible.

Referring now to FIG. 2, shown is a block diagram of an example ringoscillator-based ADC in accordance with an embodiment. As shown in FIG.2, ADC 200 is configured to receive an incoming voltage signal Vin andgenerate a digitized output Dout therefrom. As further seen, ADC 200also is configured to receive a clock signal (ADCclk) used to controltiming within the ADC. In the embodiment shown, ADC 200 includes avoltage-to-phase circuit 210, a phase-to-quantized phase circuit 220,and a phase-to-frequency circuit 230.

More specifically, circuit 210 receives an incoming voltage Vin,provided to a VCO 212, which in this embodiment may be a ringoscillator, such as a 32-stage ring oscillator. In turn, the resultingoutput of VCO 212 is provided to a phase measurement circuit 214 that inturn provides a phase signal to a sampler circuit 222 of circuit 220,which is controlled by the received clock signal (ADCclk). In turn, theresulting sampled output is provided to a phase quantization circuit224, and in turn is provided to a differentiator circuit 232 of circuit230 to thus generate the digitized output (Dout) which may be amulti-bit signal, e.g., a 6-bit signal in an embodiment. For a 32-stageoscillator, the VCO ADC output can be 6-bits. When combined with thecomplementary path it becomes 7-bits. After decimation, depending on thedecimation factor, the output can be 11-bits (e.g., 11-bits for D=4).

While this ring oscillator-based ADC may be suitable in many cases,there can be non-linearity issues that could limit resolution. As such,embodiments provide the compensation or cancellation circuit, asdiscussed above with regard to FIG. 1 to provide for cancellation ofsuch non-linearities.

Referring now to FIG. 3, shown is a block diagram of further details ofan ADC in accordance with an embodiment. As shown in FIG. 3, ADC 300 isconfigured as a ring oscillator-based ADC having a N-stage pseudodifferential ring oscillator 310 (e.g., a 4-stage ring oscillator) thatis coupled to a sampler circuit 320. In turn, sampler circuit 320, whichmay be implemented with a set of sense amplifiers, provides sampledphase outputs to a phase detector 330. In turn, the phase detectedoutputs may be provided to a phase encoder 340, which in an embodimentmay be similar to a thermometer-to-binary converter, that in turnprovides an output to a differentiator 350 to generate the digitizedoutput Dout.

Referring now to FIG. 4, shown is a schematic diagram of arepresentative four-stage ring oscillator in accordance with anembodiment. As shown in FIG. 4, ring oscillator 400 includes a pluralityof stages 410 ₁-410 ₄. As seen, each stage includes parallel coupledinverters 412 a and 412 b, in which outputs are fed back via oppositelycoupled resistors R1 and R3. Note that inverters 412 are driven by avoltage signal, namely VCO_(CTRL). As such, in embodiments ringoscillator 400 may be controlled in a voltage-controlled mode, which mayprovide for lower second-order distortion, as compared to an arrangementin which the inverters are driven in a current-starved mode. The outputsof each inverter stage 410 are provided as phase signals to a samplercircuit (such as sampler circuit 320).

Referring now to FIG. 5, shown is a block diagram of further details ofa sampler and conversion circuit of an ADC in accordance with anembodiment. As shown in FIG. 5, circuit 500 includes a plurality ofsense amplifiers 510 ₁-510 ₄. As seen, each sense amplifier isconfigured to receive two phase input signals and generate an outputvalue. In an embodiment, sense amplifier 510 may be configured as acombination of MOSFET-based differential amplifiers, a resettable latchstage, and a logic stage (one or more NAND gates (to form a SR-latch andbuffers)) to generate one or more outputs (o_(p) and possibly o_(n)). Asseen, the outputs of sense amplifiers 510 are coupled to correspondingexclusive-OR (XOR) circuits 520 ₁-520 ₄ that in turn are coupled toinverters 530 ₁-530 ₄. As further illustrated, the outputs of XORs 520are coupled to a plurality of transmission gates 540 _(a1)-540 _(a3)-540_(d1)-540 _(d3) to thus generate a three-bit binary phase value(Ph_bin[2:0]). These incoming binary phase values may then be convertedto a given digital value in a differentiator circuit.

Referring now to FIG. 6, shown is a graphical illustration of a set ofsampled phase values obtained from sampled phase information of an ADCin accordance with an embodiment. As seen, the resulting binary phasevalues, which may be encoded in a three-bit format, can in turn bedigitized to generate a 3-bit digital output.

As discussed above, in particular circuit implementations,non-linearities may exist that can be corrected in accordance withdifferent embodiments herein. Referring now to FIG. 7, shown is agraphical illustration of a third-order distortion cancellation functionin accordance with an embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 7, the Y-axisrepresents a measure of third-order harmonic distortion (as measured indBc), while the X-axis represents a third-order cancellation coefficientvalue. Understand while shown with a representative range of distortionsand coefficient values in FIG. 7 for purposes of illustration, suchvalues can vary widely depending on different conditions and/orparameters. As such, the actual values shown in FIG. 7 are for exampleonly and in many actual circuits, these values can differ widely.

As shown in FIG. 7, a cancellation coefficient value can be determinedwithin a range based on analysis of representative circuits, which maybe considered at a variety of different performance characteristics,including process, voltage and temperature, in some cases.

As illustrated, for three representative circuit corners (e.g., typical,slow and fast process corner circuits), and further considered atmultiple temperatures (e.g., nominal, low and high), a suitable level ofthird-order distortion cancellation can be realized with coefficientvalues in a range of between approximately 0.15 and 0.3.

Based on the example coefficients shown in FIG. 7, a set of fixedcoefficient values can be determined for a particular chip and thenfused into manufactured products. For example, such values can be storedin a non-volatile storage of the part, and/or may be written into a partas firmware-coded values. Understand that multiple coefficient valuesmay be provided in a particular part to enable usage of differentcoefficient values based on operating conditions. For example, based onthermal information received from one or more thermal sensors within apart, a microcontroller may select an appropriate coefficient valueassociated with a temperature range at which the product is operating toprovide a most appropriate coefficient value. To this end, a controllersuch as a microcontroller may be configured to execute instructionsstored in one or more non-transitory storage media, such as one or moreflash memories, read only memory, or other non-volatile storage toperform control operations as described herein.

In other cases, instead of static coefficient values, an ADC may beconfigured to provide a dynamic coefficient value to be used fornon-linearity cancellation. Referring now to FIG. 8, shown is a blockdiagram of a portion of a receiver in accordance with anotherembodiment. As shown in FIG. 8, receiver 800 is coupled to receive anincoming analog signal, provided through a summer 810 to a VCO-based ADC820, which may be configured as a ring oscillator, as described above.The resulting digitized output, which may have non-linearities and/orother distortion, is provided to a decimation filter 840. In turn, theresulting decimated digitized signal is provided to a calibrationcircuit 850 (which performs both a calibration of the coefficient valueand the distortion cancellation described herein (and is thus equallyreferred to as cancellation circuit 850)).

Note that in various embodiments, summer 810 may more specifically becontrolled as a switch to provide the incoming analog signal to theprocessing path during normal operation. Instead, during a calibrationmode when a coefficient value is to be dynamically determined for use incancellation circuit 850, this incoming analog signal can be bypassed,and an incoming calibration signal, which may be a (single or) two-tonecalibration signal having frequencies F1 and F2, can be provided from acalibration signal source 855 of cancellation circuit 850.

Cancellation circuit 850 includes a feed forward path 860 (which may bea correction circuit) and a feedback path 880 (which may be acalibration loop circuit). More specifically, feed forward path 860 mayinclude a function generator 865, which in an embodiment can beconfigured as a cube function generator to provide a cubed value of theoutput of decimation filter 840. In turn, this cubed value is providedto a multiplier 868, where a product is generated based on this cubedvalue and an output of feedback loop 880. In general, feedback loop 880is configured to generate a dynamic coefficient value based onprocessing of a calibration signal during a calibration mode. In anembodiment, the calibration can be performed at start-up. Or if thetwo-tone frequencies f1 and f2 are chosen appropriately outside thedesired signal band (i.e., their third order intermodulation terms,2f1-f2 and 2f2-f1 are also outside the desired bandwidth and do notinterfere with the desired signal's distortion terms), the calibrationcan be run continuously in the background during normal operation.

As illustrated, feedback loop 880 is configured to receive thedistortion cancelled digitized output and, in a calibration mode receiveincoming I and Q calibration signals at mixers 882 a and 882 b at agiven calibration frequency. Note that the mixing signals are generatedfrom the same source that generate f1 and f2, which are normally aninteger divided value of the ADC clock signal, ADCclk. In case there isonly one calibration tone with frequency f1, mixer signals havefrequencies 3f1 (i.e., third harmonic of f1). In case there aretwo-tones f1, and f2, then I and Q have a frequency of 2f1-f2 or 2f2-f1(i.e., the third-order intermodulation term frequency). The downmixedsignals are provided to filters 884 a, 884 b, which in an embodiment maybe low pass filters. In turn, the filtered signals are provided tofunction generators 886 a, 886 b, which may generate squared values, inturn provided to a combiner 887. Combiner 887 may be configured togenerate an error signal value proportional to the power of a lowerintermodulation tone, A². In turn, this power value A² may correspond tothe dynamic coefficient value, which may provide for third-orderdistortion adjustment based on current operating parameters of thedevice. This dynamically determined coefficient value can be updateduntil the value of A² is minimized, then the result is frozen and storedin a storage 888.

Then during normal operation (at least until a next calibration is run),this coefficient value can be provided to multiplier 868. Note that insome cases, some of the circuitry present in calibration circuit 850 maybe implemented using already-existing circuitry within a digital portionof a receiver signal path, such that the need for additional hardware toprovide for this calibration loop can be avoided.

Using an embodiment as described herein, linearity of an ADC can beimproved. As one example, assume an ADC design without an embodiment hasa SNR of 76 dB and 40 dB of spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) for afull scale input. By using complementary paths as described herein,even-order distortion terms may be suppressed, leaving any remainingresidue due to mismatches only. Still further, by using a voltagecontrolled oscillator instead of a current-starved oscillator,second-order distortion terms may further be reduced, avoiding the needfor any further second-order cancellation. Finally, a cancellationcircuit as described herein may further suppress third-order distortion.In this way, lower HD2 and HD3 may be realized with sufficient SNR(e.g., 70 dB SNR) (by reducing amplitude by 6 dB) and high SFDR (e.g.,67 dB SFDR). As one example, HD2 may be reduced to approximately −84 dBand HD3 may be reduced to approximately −73 dB, although other examplesare possible.

Referring now to FIG. 9, shown is a schematic diagram illustrating aninput circuit of a receiver, tuner, demodulator or other device thatincludes an ADC in accordance with an embodiment. Using embodimentsdescribed herein, a complexity of a front end to the ADC may besimplified, as the high clock rate of the ADC and its inherentanti-aliasing characteristics can lower front end complexity. As shownin FIG. 9, device 900 may be a demodulator implemented on a singlesemiconductor die, such as a CMOS-based demodulator. Incoming signalsreceived, e.g., from an external tuner, may be provided through ACcoupling capacitors C1 and C2 and via input signal pins 905 ₁ and 905 ₂to an input bias circuit 910. In the embodiment shown, input biascircuit 910 may be implemented as a series stack of resistors R1-R4coupled between a supply voltage node and a reference voltage node.

Next, the incoming analog signals may be provided through ananti-aliasing filter 920. In an embodiment, anti-aliasing filter 920 mayprovide an appropriate amount of anti-aliasing suppression, e.g.,approximately 20 dB. In the embodiment shown, filter 920 may beconfigured using series-coupled resistors R5, R6-R7, R8 and parallelcapacitors C3 and C4. In turn, the filtered output of anti-aliasingfilter 920 is coupled to an attenuator 930, which in an embodiment maybe implemented as a parallel-coupled variable resistance R9. Note thatattenuator 930 may provide an appropriate amount of attenuation, asincoming signals may be at a higher voltage level than suitable forhandling in corresponding ADCs. In an embodiment, attenuator 930 may beprogrammably controlled, e.g., by an on-chip microcontroller (not shownfor ease of illustration in FIG. 9). In turn, the attenuated analogsignals may be provided through an input buffer circuit 940, which inthe embodiment shown may be implemented as unity-gain input buffers 945₁, 945 ₂, to provide appropriately buffered signals to differential ADCs950 ₁, 950 ₂, which may be implemented as VCO-based ADCs, as describedherein.

As such, distortion reduced/cancelled digitized signals may be providedfor further operations within the demodulator. For example, thesedigitized signals can be provided to a digital signal processor toperform appropriate digital processing to output demodulated signals. Inturn, the demodulated signals may be provided to a given signalprocessor, such as an audio and/or video processor to perform decodingand output of analog/video signals. Understand while shown at this highlevel in the embodiment of FIG. 9, many variations and alternatives arepossible.

While examples described herein are with reference to ADCs for use in adigital demodulator circuit, understand that embodiments are not solimited and VCO-based ADCs having correction circuitry as describedherein may be implemented in other receiver signal paths having highsignal bandwidths and low power consumption and size. As an example,embodiments may apply equally to other receivers such as wirelessreceivers (such as a short-range wireless communication systems, e.g., aso-called Wi-Fi receiver).

Referring now to FIG. 10, shown is a flow diagram of a method inaccordance with an embodiment. As an example, method 1000 may beperformed by a controller, such as a microcontroller unit present in ademodulator or other circuit including an ADC as described herein. Ingeneral, method 1000 may be used to determine an appropriate coefficientvalue to apply to a cancellation circuit as described herein.

As seen, method 1000 begins by determining at least one operatingparameter of a device, such as a single-chip CMOS-based demodulator(block 1010). As an example, this operating parameter may betemperature, as the microcontroller may be configured to receive thermalinformation from one or more thermal sensors present within thedemodulator. As another example, the at least one operating parametermay also include process, as different coefficient values may beprovided for different process corners (e.g., typical, slow and fast).In some cases, such process information may be determined based on afrequency at which a ring oscillator or other VCO of the device isoperating.

Next at block 1020, an entry of a non-volatile storage may be accessedbased at least in part on the one or more operating parameters. Notethat this entry may be accessed, e.g., using a range in which thethermal information is included. As such, an appropriate entry may beaccessed that stores a given coefficient value.

Next, at block 1030 this coefficient value may be provided to acancellation circuit of an ADC for use as described herein. Finally, atblock 1040 incoming analog signals may be digitized. Still further, inthis cancellation circuit using the coefficient value, third-orderdistortion present in an intermediate digital output of the ADC may bereduced and/or cancelled. Understand that other means of determining acoefficient value, including a dynamic determination of a coefficientvalue based on operation of a cancellation circuit may occur in otherembodiments such as described above with reference to FIG. 8.

Referring now to FIG. 11, shown is a block diagram of a tuner inaccordance with one embodiment. In various implementations, tuner 1100may be a single chip integrated circuit such as a single die CMOScircuit that acts as a tuner for receiving signals of a given radiofrequency (RF). In various embodiments, tuner 1100 may be a televisiontuner that can be used to receive incoming RF signals, e.g., for asatellite, cable or terrestrial system. However, in other embodiments areceiver can be used in connection with other wireless receivers such asfor wireless communication within short range or long range wirelesssystems, such as a local area network or wide area network. In general,tuner 1100 includes both analog and digital circuitry.

As seen, incoming signals, which may be RF signals received over the airor in another manner, may be received by an antenna 1120 that in turn iscoupled to a low noise amplifier (LNA) 1130. LNA 1130 is in turn coupledto a filter 1135. In various embodiments, filter 1135 may be a trackingfilter, bandpass filter or other such filter, depending on a givenimplementation.

The filtered and amplified RF signals are then provided to a mixer 1140,which may be a complex mixer to downconvert the signals to a lowerfrequency. Mixer 1140 may downconvert the signals to an intermediatefrequency (IF), a zero IF (ZIF), or baseband, depending on a desiredimplementation. To effect frequency conversion to these differentfrequency ranges, a selected one of multiple local oscillator signalsmay be provided to the complex mixer.

Given the complex mixer, the output of the mixer may be complex signals,namely I and Q signals provided on I and Q signal paths. As seen, thebaseband complex signals are provided to corresponding programmable gainamplifiers/low pass filters 1145 _(a)-1145 _(b). As further seen in FIG.11, the outputs of blocks 1145 may be provided to correspondingdigitizers, namely analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) 1150 _(a) and1150 _(b), which may be implemented as VCO-based ADCs as describedherein, that provide digital samples to a digital signal processor (DSP)1160. In DSP 1160, various filtering including channel filtering andother processing can be performed on the incoming digital signals. Byperforming such processing digitally, improvements in area and powerconsumption can be realized. After the digital processing occurs, theprocessed digital signals are provided to correspondingdigital-to-analog converters (DACs) 1170 _(a) and 1170 _(b). There, thesignals are converted back to analog signals that are provided tocorresponding output buffers 1180 _(a) and 1180 _(b), which may drivethe signals off-chip to downstream circuitry such as a demodulatorimplemented in a separate integrated circuit (and which also may includeVCO-based ADCs as described herein).

Embodiments may be implemented in many different system types, such asset-top boxes, high definition or standard digital televisions, and soforth. Some applications may be implemented in a mixed signal circuitthat includes both analog and digital circuitry. Referring now to FIG.12, shown is a block diagram of a system in accordance with oneembodiment. As shown in FIG. 12, system 1200 may include a televisionthat is coupled to receive a RF signal from an antenna source 1201 suchas an over-the-air antenna. However, in other embodiments, the originalsource may be cable distribution, satellite, or other source that isthen redistributed through a digital terrestrial network. The incomingRF signal may be provided to a tuner 1205 which may be, in oneembodiment a single-chip tuner including one or more tuners.

The incoming RF signal is thus provided to tuner 1205 for tuning to oneor more desired signal channels. Tuner channels may include variouscircuitry. For example, in one embodiment each channel may include anamplifier having an output coupled to a bandpass filter. In turn thefiltered output of this bandpass filter is coupled to a mixer. In turn,the mixer downconverts the incoming RF signal to an IF output, which maybe further processed (e.g., amplified and filtered) via a signalprocessing path.

Referring still to FIG. 12, the output of tuner 1205 may be provided toadditional processing circuitry including a demodulator circuit 1215,which may include VCO-based ADCs (as described herein). Demodulatorcircuit 1215 may demodulate the digitized signals. The output ofdemodulator 1215 may correspond to a transport stream such as an MPEG-TSthat is provided to a host processor 1220 for further processing into anaudio visual signal that may be provided to a display 1230, such as acomputer monitor, flat panel television or other such display.

While the present invention has been described with respect to a limitednumber of embodiments, those skilled in the art will appreciate numerousmodifications and variations therefrom. It is intended that the appendedclaims cover all such modifications and variations as fall within thetrue spirit and scope of this present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus comprising: a first voltagecontrolled oscillator (VCO) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) unit toreceive a first analog signal and convert the first analog signal into afirst digital signal; a decimation filter circuit to receive the firstdigital signal and filter the first digital signal into a filtered firstdigital signal; and a cancellation circuit feed forward coupled toreceive the filtered first digital signal and generate an output firstdigital signal based at least in part on a coefficient value, to reducethird-order distortion.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein thecancellation circuit is to obtain the coefficient value from anon-volatile storage.
 3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein thenon-volatile storage is to store a plurality of coefficient values, eachassociated with at least one of a temperature range and a process type.4. The apparatus of claim 3, further comprising a controller to selectthe coefficient value from the plurality of coefficient values based ontemperature information of the apparatus received from at least onethermal sensor.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the cancellationcircuit includes: a first function generator to generate a cubed valueof the filtered first digital signal; a gain circuit to apply thecoefficient value to the cubed value to generate a cancellation signal;and a combiner to combine the filtered first digital signal and thecancellation signal to obtain the output first digital signal.
 6. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein the cancellation circuit is further toreduce second-order distortion.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein thefirst VCO ADC unit comprises a first voltage-controlled ring oscillatorand further comprising a second VCO ADC unit comprising a secondvoltage-controlled ring oscillator, to reduce second-order distortion.8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the second VCO ADC unit is toreceive a second analog signal and convert the second analog signal intoa second digital signal, and a second combiner to form a combineddigital signal from the first digital signal and the second digitalsignal.
 9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the cancellation circuitcomprises: a first function generator to generate a cubed value of thefiltered first digital signal; a calibration circuit to receive adigitized calibration signal, calculate a power value therefrom, andgenerate the coefficient value based on the power value; a multiplier togenerate a product of the cubed value and the coefficient value; and asecond combiner to combine the product and the filtered first digitalsignal.
 10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the first functiongenerator is coupled in feed forward between the decimation filtercircuit and the second combiner.
 11. The apparatus of claim 9, furthercomprising a tone generation circuit to provide a calibration signalcorresponding to the digitized calibration signal to the first VCO ADCunit in a calibration mode to enable the calibration circuit to generatethe coefficient value.
 12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the firstVCO ADC unit comprises: a ring oscillator to receive the first analogsignal and output a plurality of phase signals; a plurality of samplercircuits to receive the plurality of phase signals and output aplurality of sampled signals; a plurality of phase detectors to detect aphase between a pair of the plurality of sampled signals; a plurality ofencoders to receive the detected phase and generate binary outputs; anda differentiator to receive the binary outputs and generate the firstdigital signal.
 13. A system comprising: a tuner to receive a radiofrequency (RF) signal, the tuner comprising: a first filter to filterthe RF signal; and a mixer to downconvert the filtered RF signal to asecond frequency signal comprising a differential analog signal; and ademodulator coupled to the tuner to receive the second frequency signal,the demodulator comprising: a differential analog-to-digital converter(ADC) coupled to the mixer, the differential ADC comprising: a firstvoltage controlled oscillator (VCO) analog-to-digital converter (ADC)unit to receive and convert a first portion of the differential analogsignal to a first digital value; a second VCO ADC unit to receive andconvert a second portion of the differential analog signal to a seconddigital value; a first combiner to form a combined digital signal fromthe first and second digital values; a correction circuit to receive thecombined digital signal and generate a third-order distortion cancelleddigital signal therefrom, using a coefficient value; and demodulatorcircuitry to demodulate the third-order distortion cancelled digitalsignal and output a transport stream.
 14. The system of claim 13,wherein the first VCO ADC unit comprises a first voltage-controlled ringoscillator and the second VCO ADC unit comprises a secondvoltage-controlled ring oscillator, to remove second-order distortionfrom the combined digital signal.
 15. The system of claim 13, whereinthe first VCO ADC unit comprises: a ring oscillator to receive the firstportion of the differential analog signal and output a plurality ofphase signals; a plurality of sampler circuits to receive the pluralityof phase signals and output a plurality of sampled signals; a pluralityof phase detectors to detect a phase between a pair of the plurality ofsampled signals; a plurality of encoders to receive the detected phaseand generate binary outputs; and a differentiator to receive the binaryoutputs and generate the first digital value.
 16. The system of claim13, wherein the correction circuit comprises: a cancellation loopcircuit having: a first function generator to generate a cubed value ofthe combined digital signal; a gain circuit to apply the coefficientvalue to the cubed value to generate a cancellation signal; and a secondcombiner to combine the combined digital signal and the cancellationsignal to obtain the third-order distortion cancelled digital signal.17. The system of claim 16, wherein the first function generator iscoupled in feed forward between the first combiner and the secondcombiner.
 18. The system of claim 13, wherein the correction circuitcomprises: a calibration loop circuit having: a mixer to receive thecombined digital signal and mix the combined digital signal with amixing signal to obtain a mixed signal; a filter to filter the mixedsignal; a second function generator to generate a squared value of thefiltered mixed signal; and a third combiner to generate the coefficientvalue from the squared value.
 19. A method comprising: determining atleast one operating parameter of a device; accessing an entry of anon-volatile storage to obtain a coefficient value based on the at leastone operating parameter; and providing the coefficient value to acancellation circuit of an analog-to-digital converter of the device, toenable the cancellation circuit to reduce third-order distortion in adigital value generated in the analog-to-digital converter from ananalog signal.
 20. The method of claim 19, further comprising: in afirst mode, determining the at least one operating parameter andaccessing the entry; in a second mode, generating the coefficient valuein a calibration circuit; and disabling the calibration circuit aftergenerating the coefficient value.